INTERPARTICLE PERCOLATION - STATISTICAL MECHANICAL INTERPRETATION

For mixtures of free-flowing particles, the quality is controlled in part by interparticle percolation, the drainage of a smaller species through a larger under the action of strain. Employing data from a test cell, it has been found previously that the dimensionless percolation rate of isolated small spheres is controlled by the diameter ratio of small to large particles. Here it is shown that this relationship may be explained using statistical mechanics by supposing that a large particle has a fluctuating amount of free space associated with it and that percolation occurs if the length scale of this space exceeds a value sufficiently great for the small particle to pass. © 1979, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.